The Spill, by Sharon Bushell and Stan Jones

Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, sixty-two men and women share personal stories of what they saw, how they reacted, and how they coped with North America’s worst tanker oil spill. Their anger and anguish had receded from view like oil seeping into rocky crevices on the beaches of Prince…

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Surviving the Island of Grace, by Leslie Leyland Fields

Surviving the Island of Grace (352 pages) is a powerfully rendered story of a twenty-year-old newlywed transplanted from New Hampshire to a remote island in the immense Gulf of Alaska. Here, she must learn to live communally with her new family in primitive conditions without running water, electricity, or contact with the outside world. Even…

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Surviving Alaska, by Mary Ames

One can only hope never to face the many life-threatening dangers and just plain annoyances that journalist, pilot, and outdoorswoman Mary Ames warns about in Surviving Alaska (160 pages), a guide that is both useful and entertaining. You’ll learn… what to do if you find yourself in the path of an oncoming avalanche… what to…

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Sisters, by Samme and Aileen Gallaher

In 1926, Aileen Gallaher, a beautiful young woman, runs away from her difficult life in California, traveling alone by train to Seattle, then by steamship to Valdez, Alaska, where she is met by trapper Clyde C. “Slim” Williams, and travels deep into the Copper River Valley. There, Aileen finds an even more difficult life. Slim…

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North to Wolf Country, by James Brooks

In a rich, beautifully written memoir, James W. Brooks recalls astonishing adventures of his youth when he lived on the land in the final days of the Territory of Alaska and later became a wildlife biologist and helped write and enforce fish and games laws for the new State of Alaska. North to Wolf Country…

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More Iditarod Classics, by Lew Freedman

Picking up where the best-selling Iditarod Classics left off, More Iditarod Classics (224 pages) introduces readers to more of the men and women who brave the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome. And do they ever have stories to tell! In their own words, champions and lesser knowns share their very best stories–how they came…

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What Real Alaskans Eat, by J. Stephen Lay

A serious cook since he was 11, and a funny fellow for as long as anyone can remember, author J. Stephen Lay has crafted an unusual recipe book that will entertain and delight while causing your mouth to water… well, MOST of the time. When you add the fish to a recipe for Eskimo Ice…

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Views: Washington (revised 2nd edition)

Photos, like the written word, tell a story. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all. Views: Washington (80 pages) collects color photographs of Washington State by 28 area photographers. From the Columbia River in the South to the Cascades region in the North; from the coastal waters of the Oympic Peninsula in the West, to…

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On the Edge of Nowhere, by James Huntington and Lawrence Elliott

For sheer excitement and adventure, few novels match the true-life story of James Huntington. The son of a white trapper and Indian mother, Huntington learned early to fight for survival in Alaska’s remote Kuskokwim region, where life was hard. Huntington’s mother once walked 1,000 miles in the dead of winter to return to her family.…

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Spirit of the Wind, by Lew Freedman

In 1958, no one in the Fur Rendezvous World Championship Sled Dog Race knew the Athabascan Indian from Huslia who limped to the starting line in Anchorage. But when he finished with the winning time, George Attla opened a new chapter in the history of sprint mushing. For decades, Attla, the “Huslia Hustler,” reined as…

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